The reason old print ads are so nostalgic is because they capture the fads, trends, styles and atmosphere of the time they were published. They’re more than just advertisements of a product, they’re time capsules of pop culture. These ads from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s capture what American life was like in the era in which they were published.

Print ads from the 1970’s and 1980’s were more or less the same with the use of thick and quirky fonts. Product ads were followed with walls of text trying their best to sell the reader. The retro fashion of the models symbolized those decades, from bell-bottom jeans and big collars, to bright neon colors and high top shoes. Some ads were also provocative and explicit by today’s standards, exposing too much skin.

By the 1990’s, we began seeing a shift in print ads. The walls of text were slowing getting smaller, and image quality was getting better. It was becoming more common to see celebrities using or displaying products as well. Nonetheless, there were a lot of ads with an excess of negative space, something I consider to be unique to the 90’s.

While print ads are becoming more creative and abstract thanks to advancements in technology, it’s always fun revisiting ads of the past. These old ads give us a glimpse of the different lifestyles and attitudes of past decades.